THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Oh, how this beauty toyed with me this past summer.
This S-61N operated by Heli Carrier Helicopters was in Arizona to fight the Telegraph Fire burning east of Phoenix, and it flew into Falcon Field, which was the helibase for the heavy helicopters like the Chinook and Skycrane. Being a long-line and bucket aircraft, this wound up operating from a smaller airport closer to the fire, and I had just missed it departing Falcon Field the morning after I took this shot.
On the day I had planned to travel out to the small airport this was operating from, the fire had jumped the highway and closed off the road I needed to drive on to access that airport. Canceled that trip.
My next opportunity to catch it was a few weeks later, when it had relocated to Payson to fight another fire up in that area. It left about ten minutes before I got up there, headed for Lake Havasu City.
Dammit.
Still had a good day and got some K-Max shots I was happy with.
To taunt me even further, this bird returned to Payson about 30 minutes after we left to head back to Mesa.
I was really hoping to catch this in flight, but will have to settle for statics for now.
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
Oh, how this beauty toyed with me this past summer.
This S-61N operated by Heli Carrier Helicopters was in Arizona to fight the Telegraph Fire burning east of Phoenix, and it flew into Falcon Field, which was the helibase for the heavy helicopters like the Chinook and Skycrane. Being a long-line and bucket aircraft, this wound up operating from a smaller airport closer to the fire, and I had just missed it departing Falcon Field the morning after I took this shot.
On the day I had planned to travel out to the small airport this was operating from, the fire had jumped the highway and closed off the road I needed to drive on to access that airport. Canceled that trip.
My next opportunity to catch it was a few weeks later, when it had relocated to Payson to fight another fire up in that area. It left about ten minutes before I got up there, headed for Lake Havasu City.
Dammit.
Still had a good day and got some K-Max shots I was happy with.
To taunt me even further, this bird returned to Payson about 30 minutes after we left to head back to Mesa.
I was really hoping to catch this in flight, but will have to settle for statics for now.